I love
hearing people’s stories. And stories are great because they help us remember
concepts and themes (usually through the emotions they make us feel) and they
connect us as humans. And we all need to connect on a human level.
For the
past two days, I’ve been at a HR conference in Singapore, the Singapore Talent & Recruitment Show. I have participated as a panel member and also been a
speaker, talking about talent management. This morning before my speaker spot I
had a little crisis of confidence. All the other speakers have been very
business-like and somewhat formal. I am not either of these things and my
planned talk was demonstrating when I had done a good job identifying talent,
but also when I had done a completely rubbish job and judged people unfairly! I
had crafted some personal stories and was now feeling nervous that they would
be judged as unprofessional and possibly inappropriate.
And then I
thought bugger it, and went ahead as planned. I got lots of good feedback from the audience during my talk including nodding, smiling and laughing and afterwards many
people told me they appreciated the personal stories because they made them
reflect on things that had gone wrong for them. Human's after all are flawed and imperfect and it can be hard to remember this while listening to people speak of their amazing achievements during a conference.
I loved hearing their stories
over the breaks during the rest of the day.
This is
what I’m trying to create on International Women’s Day. An environment where we
can make new connections and hear some unique stories that can help us with our
journey, whatever that may be. If you haven’t got a ticket please grab one now. I just know it’s going
to be a great day!
International
Women’s Day – Singapore Style
Wednesday 8
March
Halia,
Singapore Botanical Gardens
